What is the difference between Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah?
Now the differences:
Fatah: secular (de facto Sunni), primarily in the West Bank, “moderate”
Fatah showed up on the scene as a terrorist organization (the PLO) in the 1950’s (before the occupation mind you) with the goal of destroying Israel. It declared a Palestinian state in 1988 and was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by Israel during the Oslo Accords. Since then it’s been governing the West Bank and making threats against Israel. However, it does not call for genocide.
Hamas: religious (Sunni), primarily in Gaza, extremist:
Hamas appeared during the First Intifada to promote Islamism and won a landslide victory in Gaza during the 2006 Palestinian elections. It’s been controlling Gaza and firing rockets at Israel ever since (with the occasional genocide threat as well, it’s all in good fun).
Hezbollah: religious (Shiite), primarily in Lebanon, extremist:
Hezbollah emerged in the 1980’s in Lebanon to promote Islam as interpreted by the Iranian regime and to fight Israel during both Lebanon wars. It has a complicated history but right now is a combatant in the Syrian Civil War, is used by Iran to limit the power of actual political parties in Lebanon (by being the largest member of one of the two coalition), and threatens to attack Israel (although in practice mostly leaves Israel alone).
Fatah is obviously the most moderate out of the three although they aren’t particularly moderate at all.
Hezbollah and Hamas have massive external funding (Hezbollah from Iran and Hamas from Qatar and other Gulf states as well as Iran) while Fatah does not have as much foreign funding. It is, however, backed in one way or another by Sunni states, as well as Israel, the US, and the EU, in the form of the Palestinian Authority (the government which it controls).
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